Last edited by CloCkWeRX on 2 Nov 2026. View history
Thai Basil
A variety of basil
How to sow Thai basil: Plant seeds under 1cm of soil in starting pots. Keep the plants indoors or transplant them outdoors in late spring.
Sun requirement for Thai basil: Plant in Full Sun
Fragrant and delicious herb with tender green leaves. Great in just about anything - salad, sauces, meat marinades, and even popcorn.
- 10
- plantings
- 4
- harvests
- 0
- seed packets
Thai basil facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
45cm × 30cmRow Spacing
30cmGrown for
leaf harvested 4 timesCrop cycle
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For Thai basil, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 7°C and a shortest growing cycle of 80 days at its best temperature, about 1240 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your Thai basil will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing Thai basils
- Sow seeds indoors 6 weeks before planting out
- Harden off the seedlings 1 week before planting out
- Water regularly at planting out every week
- Pinch out the growing tips 3 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Pick leaves regularly at first harvest every week
- Pinch off flower buds 8 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Pull out finished plants 12 weeks after first harvest
How members grow Thai basils
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Plant Thai basils with
grape
Photos
PhotosThai basil plantings
Video
Where Thai basils grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about Thai basils
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Who's planted Thai basils
- milki Squash planter · San Francisco Bay Area
- CloCkWeRX A & B - Raised Containers · Rosewater, South...
- shiny Brick lined garden beside the garage 🍅🧱 · Wellington, NZ
- corvi terrace garden · salt spring island
- midiprincess North Bed 3 · 94122
Thai basil harvests
-
Honksplosion harvested 5 handfuls.
almost 2 years ago
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CloCkWeRX harvested 5.
over 2 years ago
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CloCkWeRX harvested 6.
over 2 years ago
Honksplosion harvested 5 handfuls.
Find Thai basil seeds
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Ocimum basilicum L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Lamiales Labiatae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about Thai basils
Resources outside Growstuff.
